PONTIAC -- The Fairlawn Center, once considered as the site of a new high school adjacent to Stonegate subdivision, is now under the wrecking ball.

Fairlawn is one of several Pontiac school district buildings that have been standing empty and falling victim to vandals and damage from the weather.

Residents near some of the schools that are deteriorating are concerned about the schools for sentimental reasons and for practical reasons such as property values and crime. A consultant is evaluating and securing a few of the buildings this week.

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Longfellow Elementary School on Astor Street near Pike, Emerson Elementary on Emerson near University, and Webster Elementary and Pontiac Central High School on West Huron, are among the schools closed in recent years because of decline in enrollment and budget cuts.

"I understand they have to close schools to keep the budget under control," said Kim O'Neal, a resident who lives a few doors down from Longfellow, which she considers a beautiful building. O'Neal attended the school when she was a girl and her son Dameon O'Neal was a student there as well.

"I've passed it and seen the side door open," she said, noting now that it appeared the door had been welded shut.

A broken trophy from 1999 lays on the ground in two pieces near a side door, evidence that vandals have been inside the building.

"I can't believe they left the trophies," O'Neal said. "It is sad, it is sad to see the schools your parents paid for in disarray.

"They should secure it a little better. That way if they want to open it again it will still be there. I don't want to see it torn down."

Emerson Elementary, which was among eight schools closed at the end of 2009, looks worse than Longfellow facing Emerson Street. Graffiti and paper are scattered around a recessed door in the front of the building.

Lincoln Middle School was recently damaged by a fire.

At previous board meetings, when people complained about vandals getting into Fairlawn and Pontiac Central, officials said vandals continued to pull off the boards put in place to keep people out.

The Fairlawn Center on Elizabeth Lake just north of Telegraph was included with a group of seven other properties the board recommended as surplus and voted to market in 2008-2009 -- a time when the real estate market was at its worst.

The list includes Wisner school on Caesar Chavez (not the field); Frost, 723 Cottage St.; McCarroll, 191 Glenwood Ave.; and Owen, 43 E. Columbia Ave. Vacant parcels are on Baldwin at Lake Angelus Road in Lake Angelus; 2000 Orchard Lake Road in Sylvan Lake where Whitfield was located; and the former Hawthorne school site, adjacent to the park, at 1400 N. Telegraph Road. The board also reserved the right to reject any offer.

Since then several more schools have been closed and their future is uncertain. Trustees have been torn over the years about whether to sell some buildings, hold some for the future, or demolish some to avoid the cost of insurance, maintenance and security.

Demolition on Fairlawn began earlier this year and will be completed in about a month.

In January 2008, a district consultant estimated Pontiac school would have to sell the Fairlawn property, which includes 25 acres, for $3.1 million because of a complicated set of factors.

First, the price was necessary in order to get back the $1.9 million the district spent on the property in a controversial purchase made in connection with a $99 million property tax increase request that voters turned down.

The $3.1 million price tag also was deemed necessary to cover the loss of interest on the funds used to buy the property, the legal fees, the $650,000 the district owes the state if it is sold for use other than an educational facility, and half the profit to the state if it is sold for more than the purchase price of $1.9 million.

District officials did not say how much the cost is to demolish it or what savings there will be in insurance costs once the building is closed.

However, in a statement released Tuesday, spokeswoman Erica Donerson said on behalf of new interim Superintendent Walter Burke that the school district owns more than a dozen properties that are not being used. Some of the buildings and land are available for sale. None have been sold.

"Unfortunately, a few of the buildings were vandalized or set on fire. The district wants to be a good neighbor. That means properly securing buildings, refurbishing buildings and even tearing them down.

"Fairlawn is being torn down primarily for safety reasons. The cost of the demolition was covered by insurance.

A team from Belfor, a global property restoration and repair company, will be working in a few district buildings this week as well, including the former Lincoln Middle School; the facility formerly known as Owen Elementary, and Washington Middle School, Donerson said.

"The Belfor staff will be securing the buildings and extracting water, where necessary. The district's maintenance and operations staff is in the process of determining if our other buildings have sustained any damage, and if so, the extent of the damage.

"Once that process is complete, the administration and board trustees will discuss how to proceed. The needs of the district and the community will be considered, with a focus on cost-efficiency," Donerson said.

Michael Nappere, a school activist and a Stonegate subdivision resident, at one time wanted to purchase Fairlawn with a group of investors for a medical mall for seniors and possibly a preschool.

Nappere said in a statement Tuesday that the board wasn't ready to sell at the time and later, when the market took a downturn, his investors were no longer interested.

"The whole scenario reminds me of the Pontiac Silverdome, we should have, could have, but did not react in a timely manner to get the 'Bang For the Buck,' " Nappere said.

"The property minus the building structures is still prime for the right project. I wonder what the asking price is today, Dec. 6, 2011?

"Being a homeowner in Pontiac and with the property being so close, its value affects my property value," Nappere said.